A Brief History Of Holiday Hiring And Firing

One of the slides takes a look at retail hiring buildup ahead of
the holidays and the subsequent layoffs.

From the BLS: "The October-to-December holiday retail hiring
buildup (a 9.1 percent employment increase, not seasonally
adjusted) was the strongest since 2007. This
stronger-than-average buildup, however, was followed by a below
average layoff in January (70.6 percent of the seasonal buildup),
which resulted in a seasonally adjusted gain in January."